In recent years, mobile electronic devices have become hugely popular due to their portability, versatility, and ease-of-use. Although there are many different types of mobile electronic devices, such as smart phones, portable music/video players, and tablet personal computers (PCs) currently available on the market, most of them share some basic components. In particular, touch sensor panels, touch screens, and the like have become available as input devices for various mobile electronic devices. Touch screens, in particular, are becoming increasingly popular because of their ease and versatility of operation as well as their declining price. Touch screens can include a touch sensor panel, which can be a clear panel with a touch-sensitive surface, and a display device, such as an LCD panel or an OLED panel, that can be positioned partially or fully behind the touch sensor panel so that the touch-sensitive surface can cover at least a portion of the viewable area of the display device.
Given that the size of a typical mobile electronic device is relatively small compared to a laptop or desktop computer, it is often desirable to maximize the display area of mobile electronic devices to increase their user-friendliness. For devices with a touch screen, an increased display area can also provide a larger touch-active area. Typically, the display/touch-active area of a mobile electronic device is enclosed partially or fully by a border area. This border area is often reserved for routing signals from the display and/or touch sensor panel to the circuitry of the device. Although the border area in some touch-based devices may already be relatively small compared to the display/touch-active area, further reducing the border area would nevertheless help maximizing the space available for the display/touch-active area of the device without increasing the overall size of the device.